Watch Keep

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Last Saturday, I noticed a tweet discussing #notmymrroyal. My friend Dee Parsons and I support these brave young ladies and their parents for speaking out. Dee will be adding her post on this story tomorrow at The Wartburg Watch.

For all my non-local followers, I’m sure you’ve seen my tweets regarding #NotMyMrRoyal . I want to take the time to give the full details of the situation at hand and why this is so important to speak about. Here’s an info thread on what’s happening and why you should be angry:

I was angry. I am angry. As an abuse survivor advocate, I am angry over the injustice being perpetuated by a tone-deaf response by the administration of Hamilton Southeastern Schools. The principal of HSE High School is Matt Kegley.

I cried when I read this. Her response was normal to a horrific situation. The students who called her such names should apologize and stand with her. #metoohttps://t.co/3afuYQzFwD

The alleged victim says she was assaulted on a date back in September. She and her family filed a protective order against the boy and claim they alerted the school system, but say no action was taken.

“We have uprooted our lives and she is the victim and I have such a hard time understanding that why the victim and the attacker can continue to go on like nothing happened,” said the girl’s father.

They say they are touched by the support in the wake of the controversy. The alleged victim says she wants to share her story to help others.

“For four months I did not have a voice," she said Saturday. "For four months, nobody believed me, and I didn't really think that this case was really going anywhere and I was starting to give up on the idea that I was going to get justice,” she said. “Now I have a chance to have a voice and I know that there are so many girls that he has harassed, that he has assaulted, and they get a chance to get their justice too.”

Fishers Police and Noblesville Police are investigating, however at this time no charges have been filed in connection with the case.

From the beginning they seemed to care more about protecting ZZ, the Royal football player, than the victim. She should never have had to change schools. @HSESchools should know that a safe environment is important after a victim comes forward. #NotMyMrRoyal

On Monday, some HSE students showed support for the alleged victims, dressing in black in school hallways and in photos posted on social media.

They’re protesting a school talent show award, “Mr. Royal,” being given to a male student last Thursday even as the student is under investigation for sexual assault.

“He sexually assaulted my daughter,” said the mother of an HSE student. “He forced her to do sexual activities that she was not comfortable with."

She is the second HSE parent Eyewitness News is aware of having made a complaint to police against the talent show winner.

The first was last fall. A father alleges his daughter was raped. After the attack they got a stay away order against the same suspect. The order is still in force.

“I hear stories about him all the time,” says the mother of another victim who spoke with us Monday night.

“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. And I saw congratulatory comments and I was blown away by that.”

That female student’s mother says the Mr Royal award and protests that followed in school and online moved her to come forward and report her daughter’s case to the the school and police on Friday.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I feel so helpless.”

She and the father of the victim we spoke with on Saturday said they felt the school district had not moved swiftly with their complaints.

“I was starting to give up on the idea that I was going to get justice and now I have a chance to have a voice and I know that there are so many girls that he has harassed that he has assaulted and they get a chance to get their justice too,” a student allegedly attacked last year told us.

How could we ever place- a brand, a coach, a trainer, bad press, money- ahead of an individual suffering abuse. I’m committed to raising up leaders that will take a stand to LEAD. In class we are reading Rachel Denhollander’s victim impact statement so that we will be better. pic.twitter.com/tvor0BIqJi

Monday, January 29, 2018

What we know from Andy Savage and his admission of sexual assault of Jules Woodson as a 17 year-old minor in his care as a youth pastor in 1998 - these are the pastors who knew and failed to report the assault to police when they first learned about the "incident" and over the 20 years since: Steve Bradley, Larry Cotton, Chris Conlee.

Other names mentioned in the graph show the connection to Germantown Baptist Church, Andy Savage and Chris Conlee. Germantown Baptist Church was Savage's home church when he left for Texas and came back to Tennessee again.

The other men mentioned in the graphic are currently or were pastors on staff or volunteer leaders at the respective churches.

In addition to Andy Savage, two other accused sex abusers are mentioned with connections to Highpoint Church, Andy Savage and Chris Conlee. Tim Heinz is a registered child sex offender in Tennessee. Chris Carwile was reported to police for child sex abuse and subsequently lost his job with the City of Memphis.

Convicted child sex offender John Langworthy is linked in the list of names at the end of this post.

In an earlier draft, Bart Lewis was mentioned. Bart is a pastor and "Global Digital Director" at Highpoint Church. On Linkedin he lists his first church work experience as "Germantown Church." What denomination is this? Is this the full name of the church? It is vague. Why not specify? A previous commenter stated that this was Germantown Methodist. In a search for "Germantown Church," there does not appear to be a church that simply identifies as Germantown Church. Why wouldn't a pastor want to be clear about his work experience?

A Memphis megachurch pastor received a standing ovation during a church service on Sunday after he admitted that he had engaged in a “sexual incident” with a high school student 20 years ago in Texas.

The admission by the pastor, Andy Savage, came several days after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1998 when she was 17 and he was the youth minister at a suburban Houston church. One night, Mr. Savage offered to drive her home from church but first took her to a wooded area off a dirt road and had her perform oral sex on him, the woman, Jules Woodson, wrote in a blog post detailing her story.

On Sunday, Mr. Savage did not tell the congregation at Highpoint Church what took place in 1998, but he said that he had sinned, taken responsibility for it and never kept it a secret from church leaders. He said that before Ms. Woodson took her story public, he believed that the episode had been “dealt with in Texas.”

Initially, this letter was shared without consent from a secret Facebook group with out permission. This was not a local group. I've since given permission , selectively, to be shared while protecting my identity. Here are some important clarifications: I love my husband and he is not violent. I am safe as are my children. I want to seek outside counseling to work on marital issues.

I appreciate the concern from the Christ Church community, but I revoked my membership in October.

I do not have an attorney. I do not have a go fund me account. I do not have a Twitter account. I am not in control of what is shared or said on the internet.

I do feel this is an over reach of the church but I'm thankful for the time I've spent there and hope to keep friendships despite differences.

Doug Wilson is the lead pastor of Christ Church. The letter was signed by Mike Lawyer, pastor of discipleship and counseling.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Transcript
Comparison for the Ben Ferguson Show with Andy Savage WREC 600AM

Live on
radio Thursday, January 11, 2018 4:00pm CST – fair use for analysis &
critique

-----------------------UPDATE: This post was originally published in the early morning hours of January 15th, 2018. Later that day, at 1:23 PM, Ben Ferguson tweeted that he asked his producer to upload the interview with Andy Savage again, this time with "all the commercials included." These newly uploaded files contain the clips that were omitted in the original upload to the 600 WREC site.Audio of The Ben Ferguson show live on Monday, January 15, 2018 addressing the edited Andy Savage interview:

----------------------Two
sound files published on web and linked by Highpoint Church Friday, January 12,
2018

*This
transcript comparison does not include breaks and the host’s lead-in/lead-out
from breaks unless otherwise noted.

FIRST
FILE. Published Version is identical to Live Version for the first 10:37

10:29
Last words where transcripts match:

AS: “Reiterated to her the partial
confession”

BF: “This is how many
hours after the …

AS: “Same day”

BF: “So you’re talking the
next day after this happened, you’re meeting with the mom of Jules”

AS: “Yeah”

10:39
Transcript of the Live Version that was edited OUT of the Published Version
(0:20) [see omitted clip #1 below]

BF: “All right, welcome back, it is the Ben
Ferguson Show, um, Andy Savage, Highpoint Church, who is on with me today, um, and
we are talking about, um, this issue, where a young girl in Texas, 17
at the time, um, has come out and said that 1) the church didn’t
handle this correctly... ”

10:39
Continues after edit where transcripts match again

BF: “… um, 2) that you
guys had an inappropriate relationship, um, it is brought up the bigger issue
here with churches and leadership and everything else, Andy is here telling

um…”

SECOND
FILE

Published
Version is identical to Live Version for first 15:45*

15:45
Last words where transcripts match:

BF: “…people believe it
was still a crime. That, y’know, you were a pastor. Uh, one said he is
disqualified from ministry. Um, should you quit? Should you resign? Uh, why are
you still in the ministry? Are you gonna leave the ministry because of all
this?”

Transcript
of the Live Version that was edited OUT (1:23) [see omitted clip #2 below]

AS:
“Um, uh, Ben, I did resign, um, when this happened. Twenty years ago, I
resigned my position, I stepped away from ministry completely, for a season,
um, and I engaged a redemptive process in my life. Uh, I maintained
relationships, uh, with key pastors and counselors in my life, I maintained
relationships with, uh, transparency, and uh, openness with people, uh, that
uh, were trustworthy leaders in my life, uh, and I have rebuilt a life where I
have changed, um, to the degree that the lessons I learned through this experience,
um, allow me to help people in a way, um, that I-I never would have any other-other
way.”

BF: “A lot of people are saying the only reason why
you’ve been able to help people, and again, I say this bluntly, because I think
it’s important, because you didn’t fully disclose this to the membership at
Germantown [Baptist Church] when you were there, the membership at Highpoint
[Church] when you were there. That this has been somewhat omitted from your
ministry. Is that, is that a fair, way to put it, because a lot of people found
out about this, that there was even an incident in Texas, because of a
newspaper article, or they came to church on Sunday morning.”

AS:
“I have, uh, over the years, been very willing to share, um ...”

16:05
Continues after edit where transcripts match again for just 10 seconds

AS: “… elements of this story, uh,
through my sermons, through my teaching, uh, and, in more detail with specific
individuals um, uh, as …”

16:15
Transcript of the Live Version that was edited OUT (2:05) [see omitted clip #3 below]

BF:
“Are you sorry for that, to, to the, to – and I say this, forget everybody
else, I’m talking about the people at the church, are you sorry that you didn’t be more
transparent? Do you feel like you misled them by, by not broadcasting this, as
part of your story?”

AS:
“No, I believe I was honest and transparent with the leadership at Highpoint,
um, and I think that was, uh, the right place for that information to exist.”

BF: “Let’s talk about the-the real issue, and
that is, there are um, people that have started petitions to get you to force
you out, to resign. Um, there are people that think that honestly you should be
dead, uh, milder than that, there are people think you should be in jail. Um,
if I was sitting in, y’know, in the chair you’re in right now, I think there’s
a large part of me that would think, ‘Why don’t I just resign, and just go
away?’ Um have you thought about resigning in the last week since all this
became so public, where it’s on the front pages of literally every newspaper in
the country?”

AS:
“Yes. On several occasions in the last few days, I have wanted to quit.”

BF: ‘Have you offered your resignation?”

AS:
“I did.”

BF: “When?”

AS:
“On, uh, Sunday [January 7, 2018], I offered to Chris [Conlee] that I would
resign, if that was in the best interest of our church”

BF: “What did he say to you then? I mean,
because most people would think that it was a ‘no brainer’ um, you have all
this turmoil, and you’re resigning. Yes, I’ll take that resignation and run
with it.”

AS:
“That would certainly be the easy thing to do. I cannot speak for him. I can
speak about him. Uh, Chris [Conlee] and the leadership at our church, uh,
believe, uh, what we have said, since we started the church, we believe in a
perfect place for imperfect people. Um, we believe, that, um...”

16:15 Continues after edit where transcripts match for
the last 7:04.

AS: “… uh, some of our greatest sins
and failures, um, all of our greatest sins and failures, can be overcome...”

The deletion of the comments discussing Andy's restoration process is significant.

Many readers may not be aware of the process, since it is generally not made public. It may help church members to understand and ask how has Andy Savage legitimately been restored to ministry?

After a major fall involving sexual misconduct with a flock member some churches will choose to pursue restoration. Biblically, they should not, because the Pastor can never again be above reproach, but many still do. But there are high standards before a restoration can take place.

1) After such a major violation of trust, the restoration process would be both lengthy and rigorous. Andy could not have gone through it at Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church, because he left the Woodlands and returned to Memphis at the conclusion of the investigation. WPBC had no further spiritual authority over Andy. They are also 570 miles away from Germantown. It would be up to Andy's home church of Germantown Baptist (GBC) to oversee his restoration and future conduct.

2) Andy states that he did not tell anyone at GBC about the "incident". His excuse was "they never asked". Regardless of the excuse, Andy's claim is that no one at GBC leadership knew of his sin/crimes.

3) Even if someone at WPBC had offered oversight for restoration, this process could not be completed without them speaking to Andy's then current home church, GBC. It is imperative to the restoration process that the church with the spiritual authority over Andy be in charge of the oversight process. Having some "mysterious" unnamed wise men speaking into his life is not a restoration process.

4) Andy could not have completed his restoration process and have continued to conceal his sin/crimes to GBC while simultaneously becoming a pastor at GBC. This is an extremely egregious concealment as it gravely endangered the young members of the flock there. No true wise counselor or godly pastor overseeing Andy's restoration would have ever gone along with this concealment as part of the restoration. They would have demanded to speak with GBC leadership before Andy returned to ministry, to ensure that safeguards would be in place for the good of all involved.

5) How could Andy have received spiritual restoration from Chris Conlee, the one man in Memphis who claims he knew about Andy's sin/crimes upon is return to the city. Chris didn't become a pastor until he planted Highpoint in 2002. Up until then, Chris was pursuing a career in golf. http://www.highpointmemphis.com/chris-conlee